THIS book has grown out of lectures to students at
the University of Michigan and embodies my effort
to express to them the nature and meaning of art. In
writing it, I have sought to maintain scientific accuracy,
yet at the same time to preserve freedom of style and
something of the inspiration of the subject. While
intended primarily for students, the book will appeal
generally, I hope, to people who are interested in the
intelligent appreciation of art.

My obligations are extensive,--most directly to
those whom I have cited in foot-notes to the text,
but also to others whose influence is too indirect or per-
vasive to make citation profitable, or too obvious to
make it necessary. For the broader philosophy of
art, my debt is heaviest, I believe, to the artists and
philosophers during the period from Herder to Hegel,
who gave to the study its greatest development, and,
among contemporaries, to Croce and Lipps. In
addition, I have drawn freely upon the more special
investigations of recent times, but with the caution
desirable in view of the very tentative character of some
of the results. To Mrs. Robert M. Wenley I wish to
express my thanks for her very careful and helpful
reading of the page proof.

The appended bibliography is, of course, not intended
to be in any sense adequate, but is offered merely as a
guide to further reading; a complete bibliography would
itself demand almost a volume.

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